MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

I think Tom has remembered it. No Peter, it's genuine ebony.

[Tizer]

I thought ebonite because Plaques was making reference to sparks. You can get an electric spark from ebonite but not from ebony.

[Stanley]

Big clue..... Very useful in the office....

[Steeplejerk]

Jewellers pen ?

[Tripps]

Is it a sort of rolling ruler / straight edge - though I can't imagine how to keep it still enough in use.

[Stanley]

David is right, an ebony ruler. They made them round mainly for laying out accounts. If you roll down the page you can easily make parallel rulings....
Next one anyone?

[Stanley]

Where is this?

[Big Kev]

Belgium?

[Stanley]

Getting there Kev.... But where?

[Big Kev]

Menin Gate, Ypres?

[Stanley]

Yes Kev, well done.
Next one?

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Cathy]

Don’t know but I keep thinking that I can see a Gumnut.

[Wendyf]

Something to do with the Cheshire Regiment?

[Steeplejerk]

Hat badge ??

[Big Kev]

As Wendy says, Cheshire Regiment. Collar badge?

[Stanley]

Wendy and Kev have it. Collar Dog from me days in the 22nd of Foot, The Cheshire Regiment.
Next one?

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Stanley]

No takers?

[Steeplejerk]

Is it for lime ??

[Stanley]

You are so near Tom! It's used to prepare one of the key ingredients used in the production of fine pottery. (You've seen it before.... )

[Tizer]

Grinding `china stone' which is added to pottery clay to give it the porcelain look? Wikipedia

[Wendyf]

Grinding bones?

[Stanley]

Wendy has got it! To make it a perfect answer she could have added 'Calcined'. These grinding mills are at Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill where both these ingredients were first roasted in a kiln and then ground into a slurry . It's part of the Etruria Industrial Museum and open to public view.
Next one?

[Tizer]

Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill started by using bone and flint to make a porcelain-like pottery ware but later used china stone (also known as Cornish stone*) when it was discovered that it gave a product identical to porcelain.
(*A partly kaolinised granite free of the original black mica and thus able to give a pure white, speck free product.)